title: A lightweight security scheme for wireless body area networks: design, energy evaluation and proposed microprocessor design.
abstract: In order for wireless body area networks to meet widespread adoption, a number of security implications must be explored to promote and maintain fundamental medical ethical principles and social expectations. As a result, integration of security functionality to sensor nodes is required. Integrating security functionality to a wireless sensor node increases the size of the stored software program in program memory, the required time that the sensor's microprocessor needs to process the data and the wireless network traffic which is exchanged among sensors. This security overhead has dominant impact on the energy dissipation which is strongly related to the lifetime of the sensor, a critical aspect in wireless sensor network (WSN) technology. Strict definition of the security functionality, complete hardware model (microprocessor and radio), WBAN topology and the structure of the medium access control (MAC) frame are required for an accurate estimation of the energy that security introduces into the WBAN. In this work, we define a lightweight security scheme for WBAN, we estimate the additional energy consumption that the security scheme introduces to WBAN based on commercial available off-the-shelf hardware components (microprocessor and radio), the network topology and the MAC frame. Furthermore, we propose a new microcontroller design in order to reduce the energy consumption of the system. Experimental results and comparisons with other works are given.
authors.affiliation: Holst Centre/IMEC, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. georgios.selimis@imec-nl.nl
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Selimis
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Massé
authors.forename: Ioanna
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tsekoura
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ashouei
authors.forename: Francky
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Catthoor
authors.forename: Jos
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huisken
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stuyt
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dolmans
authors.forename: Julien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Penders
authors.forename: Harmke
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: De Groot
mesh_terms: D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D016494:Computer Security / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004560:Electricity; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D008838:Microcomputers; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013686:Telemetry / Q000295:instrumentation*